Goats🐐 Guns🔫 and Grandpas👴🏼

Sister Alex Solomon:

OHMYGOSH I have so much to write about I'm just gonna jump in. So I'm missing Sis Gonzales a lot this week! Only now am I realizing just how good I've had it for the past 3 months. My new companion is super nice and sweet but she struggles a lot and I honestly don't know how she has made it 9 months because there are so many things she doesn't know how to do! I really do feel like I'm training again. Except there's less crying from her this time (#mossisboss ) There are so many things I need help with but my main focus right now is the smell. I have never met a person that smells like this. I have been lighting candles every day and I just bought some febreeze but it's not really helping...suggestions will be gladly accepted!

As for the work? BATRICE IS GETTING BAPTIZED THIS SATURDAY!! And she will be wearing her shower cap! Haha, she's so cool and I'm just really excited for her! Since we met her 2 months ago, she has made so many changes and is now a married woman...yessssssssss.  It should be amazing. The only thing she's still not completely sure about is Thomas S. Monson....of all things! She says that he's "scary and intimidating" when he talks. In that case, I'm not showing her any of Elder Holland's talks! Haha but she will be totally fine. What's even more exciting is that our investigator Laine is getting baptized the next Saturday after that! BUT IT GETS BETTER. We have a new investigator in Daisy Mountain who is on date for the 30th of July. That's 3 in a row! I'm dying! I'm just so happy because I have been trying ridiculously hard to be obedient these past couple of months and it's really easy to feel like nothing good is coming from it. July is awful but it's turning out to be one of my best months here!

Speaking of the Daisy Mountain Ward...I LOVE it. I'm still not excited bout covering 2 wards again but this Ward is SO different from anywhere else I have served. We went up to Black Canyon City on Saturday and not a single person we talked to had all of their teeth. There were a couple that didn't have any at  all. There was a toothless lady named Eunice who was super nice but lived in the scariest looking/smelling trailer I have ever seen in my whole life. She has 10 dogs, 7 cats, and 20 goats that live there as well and you could tell. I couldn't even breathe when I went to knock on her door but when I told her I had goats at home, she got so excited and took us out back to show us all of hers and ask if we wanted one! Haha, I'll take pictures of BCC next time we go this week.

Pretty much, the Daisy Mountain Ward is full of super old and super crazy people who moved out in the middle of the desert to hide. In other words, it makes for very interesting door knocking...no one has addresses on their houses and this Ward is a dumping ground for old records of people that no one can find so we have almost 1,000 people on the Ward records. The Ward mission leader and all the Ward missionaries are all men 75+ and they love to sit and tell old war stories during our coordination. One of them happens to be the same guy I met a couple months ago who told me that all the Muslims will "burn in hell forever". What a peach! Haha but they're all sweet and concerned for us. This Ward is famous for people pulling guns on the missionaries so there are these 2 old guys that take it upon themselves to go check out people's houses before we do and find them. We call them 'the bounty hunters'.

Oh yeah, also this week the nudist colony held their first annual nude games! Everyone was invited to attend but, sadly, we couldn't make it.  On top of that, we were driving past this tiny old saloon in the middle of nowhere New River, AZ and accidentally stumbled upon a Rick Springfield concert...What a week!

Overall, things are good. A little overwhelming sometimes but it'll all work out. Hope you all have a great week! ️ 

A very flattering photo of the district.....